Women workers at textile spinning frames

In Po Valley textile spinning departments women were the overwhelming majority — up to 90% of the direct workforce — recruited from the surrounding countryside and lodged, where distances required it, in company-run dormitories.

The convitti for women workers, common in Lombard spinning mills between the late 19th century and the mid-20th, were an integral part of the employment contract: board, lodging and moral discipline were deducted from the wage, working time bled into free time, and the 'convittrici' could only leave on the days and hours set by the sisters.

The female factory of the first half of the 20th century was a laboratory of discipline: the women worked in silence, spoke softly, raised their hand to ask permission to go to the toilet.